I was impressed with how clean it was when I pulled it apart. There was a little gunk in the bottom, but not much. I do spend a lot of time cleaning any engine I pull apart though, it saves a lot of time and grief later.

So from what I read..correct me if I am wrong....
The owner before you may have had a third gear trouble and tried to repair it, doing so he put one part in wrong causing the fork arm to wear!!, and now you have fixed his mistake.

I am assuming it was "repaired" before me.
I got the bike cheap because it was popping out of third gear. When I tore it down, I found gasket material where there should not have been any, so I assumed it had been torn down before. Things like blue permatex gasket goo between the crankcase halves, RTV ultra black silicone sealant on gaskets and so on.
I also found the gears were nearly perfect, not showing any wear. One shift fork, the center fork that manages third gear was worn down bad. It had also been hot as the metal was blued and the hard surfaces of the fork looked melted. So I figured maybe it had been run out of oil. When I pulled the gears and shafts out, I found a thrust washer on the left side of the counter shaft. All parts schematics I have found, and the Honda manual pages sent to me from someone on here all show the thrust washer should be on the left side of the MAIN shaft not the counter shaft. So, it is my assumption that it was put together wrong, causing the main shaft to ride too far to the left making the fork rub the gear surface causing the wear. This wear took probably .040 off the fork which combined with the thrust washer could have caused the main shaft to ride too far to the left, not allowing proper mesh with the gears.
Today I got the left and right covers on, the front cylinder on, new rings on the front cylinder, and the cam timed in. It will be sunday night before I can get back to it, hopefuly get it all buttoned up then.

That is a nice looking bike. Mine has too many dings and flaws to ever look that good, without spending a lot of money on it!
Well, last night I got the engine bolted back in. One black thumbnail and a little cussing and it all went good. Kind of a rough job to do alone with one crappy floor jack that won't stay up. Also, if anyone thinks of doing this, put the water pump back together before putting the engine in the frame. I thought it would be a good idea to wait, so I didnt bump and ding it up and break anything. Well I learned it sits too close to the frame, the engine has to be dropped. One thing about Jap bikes, everything is so easy and handy to work on! Not as bad as Yamaha though for working on. So, got it all lined up and in, had to pull it again, then back in again.
Other than that it all went smooth.
I did snap a couple more pictures of things, but failed to get any pics of putting the cylinders back on or anything of the top end. I do have some pics of it back together on the bench I will try to post tomorrow.
Not, whenever I get more time off work, I will put the carbs back on, conect everything up top, put the radiator back in and see if it will fire up. I did order new carb intakes (carb insulators) and have them ready to go.
If it runs good then I am going to start on the wiring. It has brake light and turn signal issues I have not even thought about working on yet.
If all goes well, the it will be back apart to strip and repaint it. At least the tank, everything else is not too bad. Final plan for this year with it is to get rid of those handlebars. I don't care for the pullback design, thinking of some short apes if my cables and lines are long enough.
Hopefuly some pics soon.

Wow you put that engine in alone! my gawd man that sucker is heavy, when I did the switch on mine I had a friend come over and took like 5 minutes to wiggle it into place.
I was alone to put it up on the bench, so I made steps to lift it up a little at a time lol.

I was kinda hopping to see what you did to Bleed The Hydraulic Tappets!, allot of people rebuild there engines an miss out on that part, there engines tic on start up.

A little heads up on the Carbs,
in order to get the air box back on, I found much easier to lift the Carbs out of the boot a little, tighten the airbox rubber to the Carbs and the push the whole thing back down in it's place.

Thanks for the tip on the carbs and the airbox. I looked it over today and was wondering how everything would squeeze back in there.
Yeah, I did get it lifted and mounted into place alone. I got it to the floor without much trouble, just bear hugged it and set it on the floor. Then I scooted it over under the bike. That is where the black thumbnail came in! I lifted it onto a floor jack and by leaning it over, scooting the jack, raising it and lowering it, and with the help and support of some 2x4's I got it in.
The first time.
When I realized I needed to drop it down to put the water pump back on I dropped it back down alone. While I was lining it back up to get it back into the frame a friend happened to stop by. I was about a half a bolt hole off on the first bolt, he helped line it up and get it the rest of the way in.
Today got the carbs, the rear wheel, and the drive shaft back together. No pics yet, I got busy and didn't work long.

Still no pictures to load, no time to get them off the camera.
I did run into what may be my first major problem with the bike. I got almost everything back together, just need to tighten footpegs and a few other minor things. I have NOT added the engine oil or coolant yet. This may be important to my problem.
I got the clutch slave cylinder installed the other day and re-connected the hydraulic line to it. Today I got some DOT4 and filled the reservoir, and proceeded to bleed the clutch. Not a lot of air came out, not like I would have expected. I figured the cylinder would have drained sitting in a parts box on the bench. I do not have as solid feeling of a clutch lever as I did before, but it did feel firm like it was blead properly. I spun the rear wheel by hand, it turns smooth. I pull the clutch and spin the wheel, it turns. I put it into gear (first) and spin the rear wheel, it enguages the tranny and won't spin. I pull the clutch and try to spin the wheel, still won't spin. SO the clutch is not clutching!
Question, do these clutches need oil in the system (engine oil) to work properly? I have NOT tried to start it yet. I am thinking that either the cylinder is not pumping full enough to push the clutch rod or something in the clutch was not put back together correctly.
Anyone have any ideas? It is possible I did not get the system blead properly. The bleeder valve on the cylinder should allow air to escape the cylinder too, or do I need to do something to bench bleed the cylinder before connecting the oil line?
Any ideas would be appreciated.

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